Editing Tytania:Volume 2 Chapter 2 (section)

=== I ===
Mr&nbsp;Fan Hyulick, widely known as Tytania’s public enemy, found himself in dire straits on planet Bargash. Having been driven from his home city for the sake of Tytania and having witnessed the murder of an acquaintance, he had taken his revenge on the Count Arses Tytania before going into hiding in the frontier star systems, where he was plotting on a galactic scale with his comrades to bring down all of Tytania…

If one were to reconstruct the past from the outcome, as in a heroic legend, it would be described in such terms. But the reality was decidedly prosaic. After boarding the spaceship ''Honest Old Man'' and arriving on the planet Bargash, Fan Hyulick had no idea what he should do, nor did he know what he was allowed to do, so he simply spent his days idly. There was no longer any choice in life other than to confront Tytania head-on. He understood that much, and he was prepared for it, or so he believed. Yet his mind was completely blank when it came to deciding where exactly to begin.

Fan Hyulick possessed a talent for practical matters, but at present, his capacity for conceptualisation was failing to provide any direction. Until now, his talent had manifested itself in the form of carrying out tasks. He had been ordered to engage Tytania’s fleet in battle, and so he won the Battle of Cerberus. He felt he had to avenge Lira Florentz, so he assassinated Count Arses Tytania.

“What comes after I have brought down Tytania?”

If the implication was that a new overlord would emerge to replace Tytania, then fighting with one’s life on the line would be sheer folly. Fan Hyulick would end up defeating formidable foes only for that person to seize power. It would be utterly ridiculous. That is what he thought, and yet, strangely enough, he had himself no notion of becoming a ruler himself. Consequently, the virtue of striving for one’s own sake was something entirely alien to him.

“I’ll have to set Admiral Hyulick some homework. He’s not the sort to do his own revision.”

Doctor Lee, or Lee Shanchen as he was known, was probably correct in his assessment. Once Hyulick had dealt with the immediate task at hand, he was reluctant to take the initiative and tackle subsequent matters.

One cannot simply conclude that he lacked ambition, but he might well be the sprinting type. Mental explosiveness aside, he seemed to lack endurance and stamina. Although, according to Doctor Lee, it was not so much that he lacked these qualities than he was holding them back.

“Due to various circumstances, the great Tytania and the lesser Fan Hyulick have been fated to clash and contend with one another…”

Doctor Lee described the ongoing situation as though it were an incident that had already been concluded in the past. According to him, it was a nuisance for Tytania to be forced to chase after a mere minor figure such as Hyulick.

“No one has gained any benefit from the emergence of this conflict, and all those involved are convinced that they are victims and passive participants. One must say, it is a rather peculiar state of affairs.”

Wouldn’t it be strange if Doctor Lee were different? While being analysed, Fan Hyulick found himself thinking this. To contribute to hastening the downfall of Tytania simply because one wished to make its rise and fall the subject of academic research, wasn’t that the very epitome of putting the cart before the horse?

In short, Fan Hyulick believed that this Doctor Lee was probably the most theoretically armed troublemaker in the universe. At least for the time being. Hyulick considered that it was far too early to draw any conclusions on any matter, yet there was no guarantee that this wasn’t an overestimation.

As for Doctor Lee, while he loved to judge others, he was indifferent to being judged by them. He possessed a mindset that was the envy of most people.

Planet Bargash was a strategic stronghold in the ever-expanding frontier sector, where spaceships, people and supplies flowed in and out in vast numbers, and where hope, vitality, success and failure danced together in a lively whirl. The ''Honest Old Man'' slipped into the ranks of tens of thousands of spaceships and remained fast asleep until the moment it was due to take off. However, the people on board could not afford to do the same. Depending on their respective moods and temperaments, they were either deep in thought or busy going about their business.

In any case, Fan Hyulick had become a celebrity quite against his will. To use Doctor Lee’s phrase, his “fame was riding upon the light”, and what is more, that fame carried monetary value. The other day, a bounty of two and a half million dakar had been placed on his head.

Upon learning of this from the news, he sat back in his chair and counted the zeros again. It was a sum sufficient to enable an ordinary family of four to live a comfortable life for a quarter of a century. Truly, whatever faults Tytania might have, stinginess certainly wasn’t one of them.

If such a colossal reward were to come his way, he would like to arrest himself. Just as he was about to say this aloud, Fan Hyulick stopped himself. He recalled having once made the same joke, and that the person to whom he had made it, the late Lira Florentz, was now deceased, and he was overcome by a deeply bitter feeling.

The matter of Lila belonged to the realm of the past, and Count Arses Tytania, who bore responsibility for her death, was no doubt now hosting a lavish banquet, whether it was in the aesthete’s paradise or the common man’s hell, none could say. Fan Hyulick had done everything within his power. All that remained was to pray for the repose of the soul of the deceased.

If only he could bring himself to accept that, but Fan Hyulick was unable to do so. It came as a surprise even to himself. Would he be freed from this obsession if he were to overthrow Tytania, as Lira had wished during her lifetime?

Fan Hyulick was pondering this earnestly, though to outsiders it must surely have appeared ridiculous. This young man was nothing more than the acting chief clerk on a smuggling vessel. He did not even rule a single planet. The idea of “defeating Tytania” was surely nothing more than a fool’s daydream.

Originally, his animosity towards Tytania had been directed solely at the late Count Arses Tytania. There had been a girl named Lira Florentz who had made him a herb omelette; she had been forced to her death for the sake of Count Arses Tytania. Hyulick had to avenge her. For him, that was all there was to it. After all, a revolution was supposed to be a struggle to secure one’s daily bread. What was wrong with fighting for an omelette!

“So an omelette can change the course of cosmic history. It’s quite something. One really ought not to underestimate the power of appetite.”

Doctor Lee, who made this observation, was not merely a man of research and commentary, but a man of action. Paying no heed to Fan Hyulick’s intentions, he was devising a plan to form an anti-Tytania united front.

When this united front would come into being, the Blaze Flag Army would be indispensable as the core of its military strength. When making a snowman, the core needed not to be large, but a core was essential nonetheless. However, the reputation of the Blaze Flag Army was now in steady decline. Anyone who heard its name responded by furrowing their brow and curling their lips.

“The Blaze Flag Army? They’re finished. They were nothing more than a foil for Tytania. No matter how much they try to oppose them, they simply don’t have anyone capable of rivalling Tytania’s Clanner or the Four Dukes, do they?”

That was the prevailing view, and it seemed that the Blaze Flag Army has been reduced to the role of a disillusioned Robin Hood.

“Well, it can’t be helped. We’ll just take it one step at the time. As they say, a journey of a thousand light-years begins with a single step.”

When Doctor Lee uttered this rather trite piece of civic morality, Hyulick, contrary to his habit, objected:

“I think there are more useful sayings than that, though.”

“Such as?”

“Something along the lines of ‘The world isn’t that forgiving’.”

As it wasn’t a particularly high-minded rebuttal, it failed to impress Doctor Lee. Described as “a space pirate who failed to become a university professor” or a “university professor who ended up becoming a space pirate”, Doctor Lee had arbitrarily decided to use Fan Hyulick as his subject to write a major academic treatise grounded in reality.